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Tuesday, 17 January 2017

VARSITY STRIKERS FEAR ‘SCAB LABOUR’

Workers in dispute at the university in Swaziland that
has been chosen by King Mswati III to host his ‘University of Transformation’
have asked their counterparts in Botswana not to take their jobs while they are
on strike.

About 100 non-academic staff at Limkokwing University in
Mbabane started a strike on Monday 9 January 2017 protesting about working
conditions and short-term contracts.

The Swaziland Union of Non-Academic Staff for Higher
Education Institutions (SUNASHI) wrote to workers at Limkokwing in Botswana
fearing that the Swaziland management would bring in workers from Botswana to
do their jobs.

The Sunday
Standard newspaper in Botswana reported this week (15 January 2017) that
four years ago when there was a dispute at Limkokwing in Lesotho, workers were
sent from Botswana as ‘scab labour’.

Now, the newspaper reported, SUNASHI has written to
workers at Limkokwing Botswana to say if they go to Mbabane they would
undermine the strike.

The letter read in part, ‘Your coming to Swaziland
might therefore be used to defeat the legitimate display of worker power of the
planned strike.

‘Secondly, it might constitute an illegal entry into
Swaziland to work when you have no legal status to work in this jurisdiction.

‘Thirdly, it might contribute to chaos and violence
that may take place upon the striking workers learning about your presence on
the Swaziland campus.’

Limkokwing University is a private university that was
chosen
by King Mswati to house a University of Transformation that would take
students from across the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) region.
The Swazi King, who is sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, became chair
of SADC in August 2016. He pledged the university would be operating by August
2017.

The strike at Limkokwing Swaziland was
suspended on 12 January 2017, pending further talks between management and
workers.